It’s incredible just how similar we all can be. From our morning routines, social habits and ambitions,to our worries, anxieties and insecurities - our generation is one that is described as being far too worried about literally everything.
We don’t think that’s a bad thing here. But if you do find yourself worried when you wake up, or not loving life as much you want too, then now is the time to make some changes to your day.
And all days start with your mornings. How you decide to spend that precious time right at the start of our day is crucial.
It can dictate how well you perform at work, how you engage with other people, but most importantly - how you reflect on yourself.
How does your morning begin? Is it something a little like this…
The alarm goes off in your pitch black room, you roll over and snooze. Your mind starts wiring and you start thinking about your meeting that morning, the 2-hour meeting you’ve got with the US office in the afternoon and then the drinks you have to go to tonight.
The alarm goes off again. You pick up your phone and check your emails, 40 emails since checking them when you got home last night...there’s one from a colleague at 9 pm…Jees they must be working hard.
You scan through and can feel your self tensing up. Enough of that. What's going on in the world of Instagram? Scrolling through there are a few inspirations quotes, people having fun on holiday, there are a few hot people taking selfies or video’s of them working out…’I should work out more’ you think. Oh well, enough of that.
You roll out of bed, low back a little stiff and shoulders feeling a little tense. It’s straight for normal routine, teeth, face shower, loo.
But most importantly it’s time for my first morning coffee!
Maybe I’ll sit down and put the news on whilst the kettles brewing. You scroll through BBC or the Daily Mail too just to make sure you haven’t missed anything important.
You’ve just seen the time so you better dash, you’re never sure if you’ll get a seat if you leave it too late.
You chuck on your Nikes or your ankle boots with the little heel and dash out the door. You manage to get a seat on the tube, time to flick through the paper or scroll those emails again. It’s straight into the office, a nice 5-minute walk from the station.
Time to get settled into your desk and snazzy office chair. Breakfast is eaten at your desk, and looking at the busy schedule today it’s going to be the same at lunchtime.
What if your morning looked a little different….
You woke up at least an hour before you need to leave the house to get to work on time. The alarm goes off and you get straight up or you lay in bed but instead of going through the mental to-do list you pop on a guided meditation.
Instead of sitting straight up in bed which aggravates your lower back, you roll onto your side, swing your legs out the bed and gently push yourself up into a seated position. You take three deep breaths and let yourself know that today is going to be great!
First order of the day isn’t coffee ...nope it’s Adams Ale.
A big glass of water. You usually put a squeeze of lemon in there but you had a sweaty yoga session last night and you’ve planned a run with colleagues at lunch today so you add a pinch of salt to your water to balance your electrolyte levels and re-hydrate your tissues which are dehydrated...like beef jerky!
Next up you want to get some oxygen into your lungs and pumped around that body and to clear that morning brain fog.
You sit or lay on your back, knees slightly bent and go through 3-4 rounds of forced deep inhalations and relaxed exhalation. You feel a little light headed but can feel your body coming alive.
You lay there for another 5 minutes focusing on your gentle breath in and out. Your mind is clear, you’re filled with happiness and love for yourself and the world...you’re feeling chill AF.
You’ve only been up for 15 minutes so far, but you’re feeling energised. It’s time to get some blood pumping now.
You start with a few glute bridges to wake that booty up, you know you’re going to be sat for a good chunk of the day so best to get some blood pumping into them now. You roll onto your front and do a few push-ups and after that into some spinal decompression’s - your back is feeling strong.
You pop up and do a few body weight squats and lunges, you roll your shoulders and neck and can feel the stiffness of the night wearing off. You finish off your morning routine with a few good mornings, raising your arms up above your head, moving into a lunge position and stretching your torso to the side opening up those tight hip flexors.
You raise your heel up and down, waking up the ankles and toes, it’s crazy how one day in smart shoes can make things feel a little stiff in there.
You’ve been up for half an hour and you’ve hit 4 huge achievements already.
You’ve hydrated, flooded your body with oxygen, calmed your mind, loosened and awaken you're body - time to hit the shower.
You used to stand for 20 minutes with the heat pounding on your shoulders trying to loosen them but you don’t need that these days.
You blast yourself with the heat, get washed up...but you finish this baby off with a 20-second blast of cold water. You breathe through it, you feel alive, you feel energised. Who needs coffee!?
You grab the clothes you put out the night before, that’s one less decision you need to make this morning, leaving your brain clear to focus on the important stuff - no one needs decision fatigue at this time of day!
You’ve been up for 40 minutes now, you’ve got 20 minutes before you need to leave. What are you guna do!?
The world's your oyster baby! Read, study, learn a language, plan that trip, plan that wedding, call your mum, call that friend who lives on the other side of the world and will be just getting home from work, play the guitar, draw, paint, knit, write in your journal, make breakfast because you’re not fasting today, chat with your partner because they worked late and you went to yoga last night, you leave 20 minutes early and walk part of the way to work whilst listening to a podcast...who cares your morning is yours.
What you don’t do any more is scroll through your emails, resenting that work always gets in the way of home life - you leave those for work, you don’t scroll through Instagram and feel bad about yourself, you don’t scroll through BBC and fear impending doom!
Your morning is yours. It’s precious time in the day to do exactly what you want to do.
